


7 stands for togetherness

by cain_kakushi



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Anxiety, Corporal Punishment, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Ennokinoita (if you squint), Gen, I wrote this instead of studying, Non-Sexual Spanking, OT3, Spanking, also OTK
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:21:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28013079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cain_kakushi/pseuds/cain_kakushi
Summary: "I'm sure you'll do a wonderful job,senpai!"How was hesure?Self-doubt, a weighty blanket that didn’t keep warm, had covered Kinoshita since the first whistle on the court.Or; Kinoshita pretends to faint during a match, but his coach notices. There are many ways of dealing with tension and alarming everyone else isn't one.WARNING: The fic contains non-sexual corporal punishment of a minor from an adult.
Relationships: Ennoshita Chikara/Kinoshita Hisashi/Narita Kazuhito
Comments: 8
Kudos: 19





	7 stands for togetherness

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes you just feel like writing anxious boys.  
> Is this Ennokinoita propaganda? Yes. And shameless 👉👈 you'll find it at the end! I love these bois and I hope to write more of them.

He could have said _thanks_.

He could have shrugged it off.

Thing was, when Yamaguchi looked at him and said, _"I'm sure you'll do a wonderful job,_ **_senpai_ ** _!”_ , with those sparkling eyes and sure smile…

There was no way he could have said **no**.

Kinoshita stood there awkwardly, his pose freezed in that moment of time, following the ball with his eyes when his mind, elsewhere, was still replaying these words.

_"I'm sure you'll do a wonderful job,_ **_senpai_ ** _!"_

How was he _sure_ ?   
Self-doubt, a weighty blanket that didn’t keep warm, had covered Kinoshita since the first whistle on the court. However doubts he could produce wouldn’t change the fact that the freckled boy wasn't waiting his turn with them. 

Kinoshita could see him at the corner of his eye: standing at a safe distance from Yachi, wearing a warm tracksuit instead of his club jersey, and while you couldn’t guess what he was saying because of the surgical mask that covered his face, he was surely cheering them on.

Yamaguchi had caught a cold and for that, Takeda-sensei insisted for him to sit back for the day. After all it was just a practice match against a nearby school, nothing that he couldn't skip.

By that logic, it shouldn't have been a problem if any of them skipped the match… right? If it wasn't _that_ important, why stress about it?

Kinoshita shook his head violently to get that thought out of his mind. He hadn't joined the volleyball club for credits - if he was meant to play then hell, he would!

_Would he?_

The boy gulped, a single drop of sweat rolling down his temple. It wasn't a bad thing that first year students were playing better than him, just a fact, but if he were to enter the court now he'd surely screw up their score. Nervousness would not let him see the ball, and every other eye looking at him would make his legs become jelly, and what- what if they called his name out loud? Would the other team remember his surname as someone who wasn't capable of anything?

If they were to call him now, it would be to act as a pinch-server to substitute Yamaguchi.

But if a good match didn't always need a pinch-server...

Kinoshita jolted when he felt Ukai's gaze on his side. He knew better than hiding from him, so the boy faked being too invested in the match to notice that sudden attention.

How the coach could _sense_ his thoughts was beyond him. Ukai was just as terrifying as his grandfather, but most of the time it was just for show. Maybe if Kinoshita faked indifference-

"Kinoshita?"

His blood turned cold all of a sudden.

Maybe he could pretend that he didn't hear the coach. That narrow slit of luminous hope vanished when his teammates opened their way around Kinoshita.

"The coach wants you." Suga smiled, oblivious of how his voice sounded to Kinoshita's ears.

It was like being underwater. The boy nodded and turned as slowly as he could, as if the more seconds he wasted, the more his destiny could be spared by some mystical force that looked over him.

Alien abduction, a guardian angel, sudden incursions, maybe the fire alarm? None of that crashed the match.

Ukai grinned like his usual. "Warm up, you're next."

No. No he wasn't.

Ennoshita patted his back, nudging him a bit closer to the bench, but he narrowed his eyes when Kinoshita made no sign to move. "...hey? Are you okay?"

_No I'm not_ , the ashen blond wanted to answer, but he could not-

… could he?

He looked in Yamaguchi's direction.

What to do? Kinoshita was perfectly healthy, he couldn't sneeze and cough all of a sudden. That would be vile and no one would believe him either, so better forget the plan.

Tension held had a strange power over him. It usually melted after a good warm up, but as his shoes squeaked on the wooden floor, a different sensation took over.

**Freefall.**

Kinoshita widened his eyes and caught sight of the culprit just in time: he stepped on a wet towel that did _not_ belong there, sending him slipping face first to the floor. Thoughts happened in slow motion. Not only was he meant to be a loser, now he was also going to be the loser who tripped and smashed his head on-

"Kinoshita… ?"

It clicked so fast and so instinctively that it was already too late to change idea. 

_Bless the Towel God_ , Kinoshita thought as he shut his eyes.

"Kinoshita?!"

That tone of voice broke his heart. He should have gotten up at the first mention of his name, but the fact that it actually worked had distracted him with pointless glee. Hurried steps surrounded him, voices overlapped, and that- that was the moment he realized that it was too late to go back.

_Play dead_ , he desperately repeated to himself as he was rolled over his back. That was another call to open his eyes, the last useful time to do it, and he was ready- until he noticed that the match had come to a halt because of him.

"Did he hit his head?!" It was Takeda-sensei.

Kinoshita got in too deep again, his heart racing like mad, and the words _go big or go home_ took over his mind. 

He had been on the floor for too long already.

_Play dead._

"Move." Ukai said, and after his teammates left his side, Kinoshita felt doom pend over him in the heavy steps of the coach.

_Play dead._ **_Play dead_ **, he repeated again as Ukai kneeled beside him and someone helped him lift his legs. 

"He seemed fine just a minute ago…!" Narita said, and the panic in his voice made Kinoshita want to vomit.

He had gone too far this time.

The coach was too close, so much that the boy felt his warmth radiate over his skin. He all but shivered when Ukai's cold hand grazed over his neck - most likely trying to check is breathing.

"Should I call an ambulance?" Takeda-sensei's voice was also too close.

Kinoshita wanted to cry. Ukai called his name and tapped his cheek with the flat of his fingers, getting more urgent by the second.

He was bound to faint for real, at that point. How could he wake up in a natural way?! Maybe he should've opened his eyes, or groaned-! No, he needed time to think, time to not make a fool of himself. _Please don't call the ambulance_ he was screaming on the inside.

That stunt wasn't meant to get that far!

The coach's fingers left his face.

"Wait, Ukai-kun," a panicky Takeda squeaked, "you shouldn't-"

_Slap_ \- it echoed, enough to silence the whisperings around them.

It wasn't hard, it didn't sting, but the weight clapping against his jaw was just enough to make Kinoshita instantly open his eyes.

Sighs of relief were all around him. "Man, you scared us…" Said someone, but the boy was too far gone in his thoughts to identify the voice.

As the blur of the unshed tears subsided, Kinoshita felt his insides twist when he saw just how scary the man on his side appeared. 

Coach Ukai was not stupid. He had noticed that it was a bluff, and the boy couldn't do anything but dumbly shake his head to send a muted plea. 

Ukai scowled at him, an expression too bitter to suggest anything but disappointment. 

It was his end, wasn't it? Kinoshita prepared for the scolding of his life, for that parquet to become his grave, for Takeda's legs to be his casket - but Ukai, as bitter as the minute before, got up and away from him to deal with the little crowd that had gathered around them.

The blur in Kinoshita's eyes formed yet again. 

For some reason the coach had spared his pride.

"Does your head hurt?" Takeda asked, handing a tissue to the boy.

"N-no, it doesn't-" Kinoshita sniffled, "I'm sorry." And he was, truly.

* * *

That hazy nightmare left his head spinning with how fast it unraveled: a distant round of apologies, his teammates dragging him out of the gym, a vague reprimand that Kinoshita heard ringing behind them as they were already out, under the still sunny sky, unable to understand the words.

Kinoshita didn’t need the exact wording of things to know that it was his fault if Noya was getting scolded.

Apparently, their libero was the one who had dropped the rag on the floor and Takeda was scolding him for that,

for the whole gym to hear,

for one of their best players to take the unnecessary blame of a nonexistent injury.

Guilt was a heavy substance. It seeped through every fiber of his strained muscles until it reached his knees, wobbly and unstable as his friends brought him in the infirmary. They insisted on staying with him, but the boy found his voice again to refuse their help; after all, they had another set to play.

When the two of them closed the door, leaving Kinoshita alone to stare at the ceiling of the nurse's office, the boy was reminded of the faulted passing of time in that room. The clock ticked unbearably slowly, but that comforting sound was enough to occupy Kinoshita’s empty head for some more minutes.

It ticked, and he slipped under the fresh blankets.

It ticked, and he turned to his side.

It ticked, and he caught sight of the steaming cup sitting on the bedside table. It was the lemon tea that Narita had prepared. Beside it was the chocolate bar that Ennoshita bought from the nearby vending machine.

_“You better eat something!”_ His friend had said, rambling about low blood pressure and sugar.

The comforting ticking was swapped with a silent scream. Deafening and sincere, kept between clenched teeth as big drops of tears rolled onto the pillow, drawing rivers that did not stop pouring until the light coming from outside dimmed - a sign of the passing of time, an input that finally put words in Kinoshita’s lament.

He did not deserve kindness, he did not deserve their friendship, he did not deserve the comforting warmth of these blankets - if only he could have gone home on his own, he would have! _What was he doing in the club?_

The boy took a sip of the now cold tea, gagging on it for how yucky it got. It helped with the ache in his throat, but no nerve of his was soothed. The cup trembled in his hand.

It was the same level of doubt that had struck him under Ukai Senior’s training regime, but doubled with certainty: what happened that afternoon was proof that volleyball wasn’t his thing. He shouldn't have returned to the club with Ennoshita and Narita, for they were different from him: hardworking, loyal, **better** ,

and most importantly, not cowards.

“Kinoshita?”

The boy jumped in place, trembling hands gripping tightly the sheets and holding on to them for dear life. There was no way to confuse that gruff voice: it was the coach, casting an ominous shadow on the floor. Kinoshita shut his eyes.

“So, how are you?” Ukai sounded neutral as he slid the door closed.

"… I'm sorry."

"Good, but I meant your head.” The coach took swift steps in his direction and Kinoshita remained still, petrified, as if not moving could make him blend and disappear into the white sheets. Ukai took it as an invitation to play his same game: he sat at the edge of the mattress and looked ahead, ignoring the lump of anxious energy shifting behind him. “Did you knock it against something?" He asked.

"No…"

"Then how the hell did you think that faking a loss of conscience was a good idea?"

Kinoshita wished that Ukai would skip the scolding and go straight to the “kicking him out of the team” part, because there wasn’t a real answer to that question. Maybe it was just because he was stupid? That wasn’t an explanation though, just an undeniable fact.

"Kinoshita?” The coach pressed again, voice dipping low - not menacing, just resigned.

As if he was done with him.

"I was scared." Kinoshita mumbled. His hands were torturing handfuls of that poor blanket, and as if it was too much to witness, Ukai’s palm came down to wrap around one of his fists.

It was unexpected, but not unwelcome. Their gazes met for brief seconds, enough for Kinoshita to realize that there wasn’t anger in his coach’s eyes.

"Are you scared of _me_?" He asked.

Kinoshita took his time to think about it.

He wasn’t scared of him nor of his grandfather, for that matter. Sure, they were actually terrifying during practice, but it wasn’t their fault as human beings filling their roles. The boy realized it when his heart clenched at the thought of having hurt Ukai, of having him feeling guilt as consequences of his actions - just how it happened with Nishinoya.

Kinoshita’s face darkened as he shook his head no.

"Then what's wrong?"

There was a whole list of things that were wrong. His serves, the undeserved faith his teammates put in him, how his nerves would never cooperate, his bad attitude towards training - maybe it was him who was **wrong** , and expectancies didn’t help.

"We don't have much time, Kinoshita."

The boy couldn’t bring himself to say even one of those pathetic reasons, so he just looked the other way.

Ukai‘s palm left Kinoshita’s hand to grab at the zipper of his sweater. "Have it your way. I'm getting to the bottom of this whether you like it or not." He said, tossing that warm layer behind him. "If you want to skip the talking, then we'll go straight to your punishment."

Now _that_ was the moment when he felt genuine fear.

If he had gotten the right idea on how Karasuno handled troubling players, that was through _spanking_ \- something that he couldn't even say out loud, but that he had heard of in the club room several times.

His lower lip trembled and he refused to look up, gaze hooked on the threateningly good shape of his coach’s arms. "There's no need if I'm out of the team already…"

Ukai raised an eyebrow at that. "Do _you_ want to be out of the team?"

"No!" Kinoshita blurted out, spontaneous and sincere.

"There, that's your answer. Over my knees now."

The boy shivered and crawled out of the blankets, shyly approaching Ukai, body moving on its own as his mind raced elsewhere. He was _not_ out of the club, he was _not_ being disowned by the rest of the world, and the fact that he couldn’t even react to that knowledge threw him off balance.

So… how was he supposed to feel, then?

He had prepared resignation, sadness, he had even thought of saying goodbye to his best friends, since he wouldn’t have been able to look in their eyes if they were to ask him **why** Ukai had banned him from the court.

Instead of that, he was getting a punishment for misbehaving children.

"Kid, I'm not upset about the fact that you were scared." The coach’s words dropped like pebbles in water, rippling the guilt that Kinoshita was drenched in. “It’s how you acted that was wrong.”

The boy couldn’t talk for the tightness of his throat and so he just nodded, trying to find purchase in a gentle grab of Ukai’s thigh. The synthetic material of his practice shorts sat uncomfortably against his coach’s pant leg, but the sensation was quickly erased as they were pulled down. "Did you actually slip on that towel?"

Kinoshita cringed at his exposed underwear, but decided to not protest it. "I did." He answered.

“And were you hurt in any way?”

“No…”

The coach brought his hand down for a single slap, making the boy jolt in surprise. It was different from what he had expected, a hurt that stung and left him bracing for more that did not come. 

"You do know why I'm doing this, right?" Ukai asked, forcing him to answer with more than two syllables.

“I… I pretended to pass out..."

Another spank met his rear and more came down one after the other, leaving him shivering and tense under the effort of staying as still as possible. Kinoshita bit back a gasp when a harsher slap caught him on the undercurve of his bottom, and a horrible doubt crossed his mind: just how much was it supposed to last?! He couldn’t keep up with that for longer! He had never received a spanking, not even from the captain, and to top it all, he had never heard of someone getting it from Ukai himself.

That was an achievement nobody would be proud of.

"You scared your teammates half to death." The coach scolded, voice stern and monotone in a way that Kinoshita had never heard. It was as if the sound of his hand smacking down could convey more feelings than his smoke laced voice. "You scared us, too."

"Why-" the boy tried to say, but a hard spank cut his voice off, "W-why didn't you tell Takeda-sensei?" He whined.

"Because I'm not a sadist." The coach said while picking up the pace, and for that Kinoshita doubted these words. "One, you would have gotten double the dose. Two, you would have had to apologize to your whole team and the opponents too."

Kinoshita’s insides flipped at the thought, but he didn’t have much time to feel that imaginary embarrassment: quick and harsh, Ukai delivered spanks one on top of the other, making him forget about everything but why he was being punished.

"And three, I wanted to handle this myself."

Kinoshita’s eyes, red and swollen, failed to conceal the mortification he felt. Little ows and sighs of pain cascaded down Ukai’s pant leg, where the boy tried to muffle them with no avail.

"We have a problem, boy. Why's that? The whole reason you pulled that stunt was because I called you in?"

"I didn't want to-" he hiccuped, ashamed of how whiny his voice was beginning to sound, "I didn't want to screw up and, and I didn't think-!"

" _You didn't think?_ "

Kinoshita yelped and kicked at the suddenness of Ukai’s swats, now covering both cheeks at once. "I- I thought too much-" he tried again, a hand reaching down to scrape his blunt nails on the floor.

"What if we actually called an ambulance? Have you thought about that too?"

_"Yes"_ he wanted to answer, but Ukai's hard palm only gave way to throaty cries. A single tear spilled on the floor and he tapped his ankle on the mattress, a desperate sign that he couldn’t take more than that -

and against all previsions Ukai stopped at once, as if he understood. With his other hand he caressed Kinoshita’s back, trying to soothe him, granting him an unexpected break. "Do you have something to say for yourself?" 

The soft edge of that voice gave the boy hope and so he nodded and wiped at his face, but again, he felt as if words wouldn’t come out: his throat was clamped and tight, no matter how much he gasped or tried to force himself to speak.

"Take your time." The coach assured, patting his spiky hair down.

How much time was he granted, exactly? And what if he said something stupid?

_Would he ruin that chance too?_

Frustration got the best of him and Kinoshita coughed, suddenly panting for air that would not flow in that position. He felt himself slide backwards until he hit the floor with his knees: it was Ukai, who swiftly got him off that uncomfortable position.

“Breathe, Kinoshita.”

And he did, slowly, letting his coach straighten his back. If that was supposed to be an “okay” for him to stand up, sit, or maybe a polite request to stop hugging his leg like a dog, Kinoshita couldn’t help but ignore it and keep himself grounded to the coach’s side. 

There was something comforting about the red of Ukai’s sweatpants, the only thing he could focus on along with the rhythm at which his thigh pulsed, perfectly calm, perfectly followable. "I'm sorry." Was the first thing he said when his breathing stabilised, "I will never fake something related to health again, nevermind something so serious…"

Ukai squeezed his shoulder and nodded. "I will take that as a promise, because I need to trust you. We’re almost finished."

_Almost?_

The boy cringed at that word, choosing to ignore it at the best of his capabilities. His bottom burned too much for a slap more, let alone another round of spankings! How could the others put up with punishments?

"Kinoshita?"

"Y-yes?" He sniffled, as if it could soften the coach.

"Bring your ass back here."

The boy shook his head pleadingly, the same thing he did when Ukai had caught his bluff, but it didn’t seem to work that well now.

"Kinoshita." The coach threatened again, **hostile** , and Kinoshita barely had time to murmur a pitiful _please_ before he got manhandled back over Ukai’s knees.

Yelps of pain filled the room, this time loud and unashamed as Ukai dealt with him again. 

"Another thing," the coach lowered his underwear so hastily that Kinoshita only noticed when another smack caught his sit-spots, "when I tell you to do something, **you do as you're told**. If there's a reason not to, I'll trust you to speak your mind, but if you continue ignoring directions every time, then I'll think you're just trying to have your way."

Kinoshita quickly learned that sliding off his coach’s lap wasn’t an option, but didn’t stop his squirming so soon: he still tried to get a hold of his underwear, at least until Ukai grabbed his wrist. The spanking momentarily stopped; the burning, much to the boy’s dismay, did not. 

That moment of silence went on painfully long, enough to make Kinoshita hyper aware of the fact that he had just thrown a full-fledged tantrum over his coach’s knees.

The day _could_ get worse, it seemed.

"You don't want to have another talk about discipline any time soon, do you?" Ukai threatened.

Kinoshita frantically shook his head. "No- no I don't-"

“Good.” He huffed, but didn’t move until he was sure that all of the tension had left the boy.   
"You won't pull a stunt like that ever again," Ukai smacked at his pale thighs, "and next time something's wrong, **talk**." 

“I will!” The boy cried on the last, harsher spank on the back of his leg.

The coach gave him a minute time to sniffle and catch his breath, as spent and regretful as he was, before dragging his underwear back in place. "Get up." He said, and when Kinoshita scrambled to obey, Ukai did the same to wrap his arms around the boy and guide him in a hug.

It was unexpected and again, _not unwelcome_. Kinoshita quickly melted in that hold, shedding some tears on his sturdier shoulder. “I’m sorry…” he chanted, trembling hands at the coach's sides, before he could gain enough courage to wrap them around his waist.

Ukai’s t-shirt soaked but he didn’t complain; instead, he made sure to keep Kinoshita’s face snuggly tucked against him. "It's okay. Your punishment is over." The coach reassured him, running his fingers in the pale hair at the crown of his head.

Kinoshita leaned in that touch and opened his mouth to speak, but luckily stopped himself before he could thank him. He felt that it would be too weird. It was a strange sentiment, lightweight and frail, but somehow he knew that it was sincere. 

It would have been a small, hushed _thank you_ for giving him another possibility, for not telling the others, for listening. For not giving up on him.

  
  


"So, why did you do it? What were you scared of?" Ukai inquired, handing a glass of water to the boy.

Kinoshita had hoped the coach would forget, but evidently, it wasn’t his lucky day. "Not being enough." He truthfully answered, "It made… it made me sick, knowing that I would have messed up everything."

"There's no messing up when you're working for the team. But..." Ukai collected the empty glass and shrugged. "It's normal that you'd feel like that."

Was it really?

Kinoshita was the first to recognize the way he overexaggerated. Next was his family, and his friends, and then if the whole word started to think that he was too dramatic for his own good, then who could he turn to? The boy huffed, unconvinced, but his thoughts took a whole other direction when Ukai slapped his bottom to regain his attention.

"You have to work on the way you deal with anxious thoughts, not on how to fake your death."

"Okay-! I just… I want to do better…"

"I know, and I know that you will." For the first time that afternoon, Ukai smiled. "For that you'll have to accept the help of your friends, though."

"My friends?"

“Yes, the ones that are eavesdropping.” The coach cleared his voice loudly and turned to the door. "I know that you're there, Narita, Ennoshita."

* * *

There were many places Kinoshita wanted to be.

A grave, a bed, a sushi joint - they looked like wonderful options but instead he was still in the corridor, walking awkwardly between Ennoshita and Narita, his steps slow and unsteady for the tension. His friends didn’t ask questions, they just moved alongside him.

From the outside they probably looked like a mournful procession.

Kinoshita couldn’t let that doubt keep him on edge all evening. "...for… for how much did you eavesdrop?" He took the courage to ask, fearing the answer.

"A minute or two.” Narita said, “We changed and immediately ran back to see how you were doing."

The boy began sweating bullets and tried to remember what exactly were him and the coach talking about two minutes earlier, hoping that it did not involve passing out for show. Math was hard to do; so much that Ennoshita, surgically precise, cut the chase just as his friend reached a breaking point. 

"We heard enough to understand that you faked the whole fainting story."

Kinoshita’s shoulders dropped. If he hadn’t cried so much that day, he might have done it again. "I'm sorry-" He tried to apologize, but Narita’s upbeat voice smothered his words.

"The coach is right, you need our support."

The ashen blond looked at his two friends, going back and forth between the two of them. Were they not… upset? “Are you for real?” He sheepishly asked.

Ennoshita nodded. “Hm hm. We should have noticed earlier, to be fair.”

Kinoshita stopped, eyes huge and glittering. "I…” He stuttered, “I don't deserve you two-"

“ **Don’t** !” Ennoshita pointed a finger at him, making Narita jolt too by reflex, "Don't finish that sentence unless you want _my_ handprints on your ass!"

Kinoshita paled and recoiled against his taller friend. Ennoshita could be _really_ scary when he wanted to…

but terror, as sudden as it came, was steadily replaced by the flushing of his face. "Wait-” he gasped, “you listened to **that** too?!"

"No we didn't, I swear!" Narita quickly clarified.

"Then how would you know-?!"

His two friends exchanged panicked looks that turned into lopsided smiles. Ennoshita nodded to Narita. "Hold him."

"Sure thing." The taller answered.

In a heartbeat, Kinoshita found himself blocked in Narita's arms. “Hey, what-” the blond tried to turn, but Narita was quick to press his friend's head against his chest. As much as he tried to squirm away, the other was too strong for him - and Kinoshita ended up being so distracted by trying to worm away that he didn’t understand what was going on, not until Ennoshita hooked a finger in his shorts' leg. 

“Oi oi oi-” the ashen blond protested when he felt him pulling it up, enough to expose the hem of his briefs to the air of the corridor. "Get your hands off of me! Ennoshita!"

"And… done." The other proudly said, finally leaving alone the shorts to cover his cheek.

Narita was careful in the way he released Kinoshita, as if he was a rabid animal that could and **would** bite, and he almost had to block him again when the blond snarled at Ennoshita. "Done what?!" 

A phone was shoved in his face as an answer.

He had to squint at the screen before recognizing a photo of the back of his thigh… and cringed at the bright red that peeked out of his underwear. Down, there were slightly fainter marks: imposed on his skin were mean, red stripes, clearly not covered by his shorts, and clearly left by Ukai's fingers.

Ennoshita just grinned and Narita, that gentle soul, took his sweater off to tie it around Kinoshita's waist. "There." He said, breaking the astounded silence.

"Were you going to let me walk around like that?!" Kinoshita squeaked.

"Not that you didn't deserve it." Ennoshita shrugged, getting the phone back in his pocket.

"...hey, delete that photo!"

"I lost three years of life to your acting skills, so I'm keeping it."

Narita chuckled. "Would you send it to me, too?"

“Of course.”

"Narita, you traitor!"

His best friends laughed together. It was no mockery since they always teased each other, but Ennoshita couldn’t help but soften his expression at Kinoshita’s pout. 

"Take it as a reminder." He said, his usual gentle inflexion coming back in his voice and manners.

"A reminder of what?!"

"That you're not alone," Narita wrapped an arm around his shoulder, "and that your place is here."

“Here,” Ennoshita repeated as he rested a hand on Kinoshita's hip, "between six and eight."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! To you who got here now and for all the wonderful people who read the first part on Discord. I love you <3  
> Leave any kind of feedback and you'll make my day :3
> 
> Xoxoxo,   
> Cain


End file.
